Hitting the road with Sister Pie
We are team Community Collective! On the road, we aim to support organizations focused on improving the wellbeing of their local communities. We are starting in Detroit with a well-known, people-first bakery and will then move on to Nashville, Columbus, and Indianapolis.
Our team is made up of three MBA2s and one MBA1:
- Amanda Hsieh, a graduating MBA2 who came to Ross by way of New York City. In August, Amanda will be returning to Accenture but in the Atlanta office. She sourced three of our four entrepreneurs, so she is particularly invested in the journeys of these business and hopes to contribute in ways that are both valuable and actionable for the entrepreneurs.
- Katarina Nguyen, a graduating MBA2 who came to Ross from San Diego, CA. After Open Road, Kat will be moving to Philadelphia to join Johnson & Johnson. Before heading out east, Kat welcomes the opportunity to embrace uncertainty, think on the fly, and work with the team and the entrepreneurs.
- Hemangini Pande, an MBA1 who came to Ross from New Delhi, India. Before heading to McKinsey Chicago for a summer internship, Hemangini hopes to learn about how small businesses operate and looks forward to exploring US cities outside Ann Arbor and Detroit.
- Marissa Cooper, also a graduating MBA2 who came to Ross by way of Minneapolis. In June, she will be moving to DC in preparation for starting full time with Bain. During Open Road, she is excited to learn by doing and to deliver tools the entrepreneurs are able to use with ease.
In the first week on the road, our team had the pleasure of working with the renowned Detroit-based and woman-owned Sister Pie!
The week was filled with unexpected events such as minor flooding in the Sister Pie basement and a handful of COVID cases, but it did not stop us from having fun and collaborating with the organization.
We are incredibly grateful for Lisa’s time and her team’s willingness to show us around and answer our questions pertaining to their business! Over the course of the week, we completed an analysis of Sister Pie’s financial and HR applications and spreadsheets to identify potential areas for improvement. In the process, we collaborated with Chris Mueller and Simone Turner (BBA) from the Impact Studio and Professor Mike Barger from LBLE and MAP. We are excited to know that our work will not stop here, as we are handing our recommendations over to this summer’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program (DNEP) point of sale intern team to tackle further analysis and implementation.
Sister Pie also kept us well fed with a variety of baked good throughout the week! Cincinnati and Nashville, here we come :)
